Mi novia dijo que SU PADRE ERA EL HOMBRE PERFECTO y jamás estaría a SU ALTURA

Sometimes it was just a casual remark. My girlfriend would repeat that her father was the perfect man, that no one would ever measure up to him. I would smile. I didn't argue. But the way she looked at every little mistake I made made those words linger longer than usual. As the months went by, the comparison surfaced in strange details. The way I folded a shirt. A mug left by the sink. "My father would never do that." I didn't question it at first. Something changed later. Something in the silence between us began to take up more space than our conversations. And one night, as she absentmindedly twirled a key ring between her fingers, I understood that she wasn't trying to live up to her father anymore. Something else was happening. No one said it out loud. Even so, everything felt different from then on, as if the story had already taken a turn that no one wanted to talk about.